What Do You Want to See in Your Hubitat Hub?

You could do it with a virtual switch using a similar name. So when the sensor on the garage door is open, you could have a virtual contact tripped to alexa just named garage and ask if it's open or closed...

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I don't want to downlplay discussion on a topic I started... but... :slight_smile:

I'm torn on this one... I am working on a Tasker integration to make some notification options more accessible, so can understand the lure of a feature like this... but personally I don't want to see resources, in particular HE developer time taken up with features that can either be provided elsewhere in cloud-hosted services and/or services that could be provided by complimentary hubs like a rpi.

I've seen something similar posted recently... So I am not sure if this is a HE hub thing... or something else... May be worth investigating more before putting it on a longer list of changes the dev's consider for the HE hub.

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As to a remote control I now have 3 of the Fibaro 6 button KeyFobs. They are currently $39.99 on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Fibaro-FGKF-601-ZW5-KeyFob-Controller/dp/B06XZS35YL/ref=asc_df_B06XZS35YL/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198064502357&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2750970654610608934&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011778&hvtargid=pla-348585285533&psc=1

Since they can do a single click, double click and hold you can get up to 18 actions from each one.

I've been very happy with them.

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I'm talking AV remote control. There's really nothing great in the market to replace the Harmony. Even the new Control4 remotes suffer from mediocre design.

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havent found one.. still have 3 harmonies in service and a spare in the closet

I've been working on some stuff in this area. Not a physical remote control, but how to integrate more AV stuff into Hubitat. It's early, and it's not a problem one person can solve on their own, but if you're curious:

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Agreed. Holding on to my two Harmony hubs. The Sofabaton X1 looks promising, and is priced reasonably (~$190). They had promised a local API, but haven't delivered on that yet.

I have a brand new one of these I'm probably gonna offload

Along with an Elite and hub

I have/had several Harmonies. The#1 thing I loved was the ease to change channels by voice through Alexa. But with the all too frequent Harmony /Alexa disconnects I was getting I switched to Google with YouTube. With a Google “puck” (whatever they their Echo Dot competitor) I can talk to it and it turns on my Samsung TV, Denon recover, and, or course, my Google TV streamer.

Apple, Roku and Google tv;s have really nice remotes (I am partial to the Roku remote). CEC/ARC makes things easier. In my case I use integrations for hubitat to monitor change in source/app to control lights and at night the master shutdown button in on the bedroom night stands turn off the TV... (I have no desire to use a dashboard on a tablet or a phone to control the tv when a small handheld remote with minimal buttons does so much more. I don't even use big receivers anymore. Good soundbar with a subwoofer does me well nowadays.

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none of those approach harmony in my opinion.. i cannot choose from a screen wath netflix, tivo , amazon prime, etc
or music,

and have it turn on the tv, my yamaha receiver and the tivo or roku and select the correct input and stream. and also turn them all off with one button.

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Both my roku and my google tv remotes have buttons specifically for disney, hulu, netflix etc. That said, I'm not that worried for myself about joy padding over 2 apps and hitting enter (or if in a channel hitting home first then over 2 apps and enter) to select an app channel (I'm sure there are others who are)....

Most systems will do all of that via HDMI CEC. But then you still have to use multiple remotes so it knows what device is wanting to be used.

When my last Harmony died, I was too lazy to get something else, so just juggle a couple remotes. With HDMI CEC i really isn't as burdensome as I would have thought. I never touch my TV or receiver remotes.

As I mentioned above, I went with Google with YouTube TV. One thing I didn't mention is that there is a free version of an app called Button Mapper. I was able to use it to make the included remote go to YouTube TV with a single click and "regular" YouTube with a long hold. They also have a double click for a few buttons. So my NetFlix button takes me the Hulu with a double click and Prime with a hold. It was extremely easy to set up (especially for anyone here). It made that one remote so much more versatile that I virtually never touch the TV remote (unless I'm casting something to the screen and need to change the primary screen or split screen effect. And yes, I'm sure I could have gotten my Harmony to do that, but since YouTube TV doesn't do channel numbers, I would have lost a lot of the usefulness of it to go to a particular channel).

As to what I would like to see changed:

I like the categories/tags mentioned above. I think categories would be enough. But a Tag system would be that much better. I could just call one tag "Category" and see if I wanted others.

My biggest wish, which may be impossible, is to never have to reboot periodically when I get the inevitable 20-30-forever lag in one or more switches being pushed and the corresponding action take place. I guess all computers need to get rebooted sooner or later. I know there are some home-grown reboot routines to go off every X days at Y time. I just wish the ability to set up a reoccurring reboot routine be built in.

Speaking of built-ins, there are some 3rd party apps that have been around for a long time and I wish they become officially integrated (sort of like how AMG was eventually made a part of Mercedes).

I also wish the geofencing/presence section was much more accurate and much shorter range. (i.e. know when everyone is outside and within just a few inches - I can't lock myself out of my car as it can tell if the keys are inside the car or outside - so such precision seems perfectly obtainable).

I think the UI is a lot better than it was, but still has a long way to go to be really user friendly. Maybe because it is browser based, but I often find I have to click into a blank area before the next thing I need to do becomes active. It just isn't intuitive, and I don't know why that can't be fixed.

Also as to the UI in general I haven't checked. so I don't know if the new conditional triggers solve this, but my idea of a trigger is something like "At sunset" or "When I arrive home", not starting with Switch X and then If it is Sunset or If I've come home as a modifying condition. Again, being so baked in, I don't know if that can change (and if the new conditional triggers do exactly that). My ideal trigger would be If it is Sunset and I'm at home Then ...

I also wish there was more official support for Wi-Fi devices.

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The new "Save" icon next to such fields was added to address this concern (you actually don't need to click it specifically, just click outside the field so it knows you're done changing it--this just makes it clearer). Many apps have "dynamic" UIs that will change in response to the value of some inputs.

I'm not saying this is the only way it could possibly work or the best way, but I'd at least check out the recent changes if you haven't already.

You've always been able to trigger at sunset or on any event (and check states, though in different ways in previous versions of rules). Conditional triggers might save you from needing to do certain checks in your actions, and they make some things easier or perhaps even possible compared to before (as the condition is attached to a specific trigger, not any/all triggers as it would be in your actions). If you have questions about how to make a certain kind of rule, I'd suggest creating a new topic and asking. Lots of people are happy to help!

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Thanks for the fast reply. Right now I'm all good on my rules. I did take a quick peak and saw the UI has been further improved.

My original reason to go with Hubitat was that it was supposed to be more capable than Wink and Smart Things but not as hard as Home Assistant. I found that was true and I've been able to everything I wanted without real coding such as to turn the top and bottom pushes of a switch to act as a toggle for the top and bottom lights of a cabinet, and change light dim levels based on modes, (time of day), etc.

I've also found that I'm having to reboot the hub and/or pull the air gap on switches much less than before. As I haven't updated the switch firmware in a long time I attribute this to the hub software getting better. So all-in-all I'm a happy camper, especially as I have a very good WnDAF (Wife and Daughter Acceptance Factor).

Definitely UI especially with creating rules. As a hub owner who has just moved to Smartthings to see what it's all about (don't shoot me)

I have enjoyed using their app to create rules

If I remember correctly, it is easier and more "eye-candy", but that's because the functionality is lacking any kind of substance. Are they even let you build a basic rule like IF this happens, then do this but only between this time frame, or light level, or this mode, or certain day of the week, etc.?

They do keep adding more functionality, probably at/close to basic rules. The idea of setting up anything complicated on a phone makes me want to poke my eyes out. The one thing that I do like is the responsiveness of the app. Hubitat feels slow, phone or browser. Even if that is not a particularly substantive issue.

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